Who is Anand Safi?
I am an Engineering Manager at Mark43, and I also serve as a Startup Advisor and Engineering Leadership Mentor outside of my role with Mark43. In terms of hobbies, I enjoy coaching, volunteering for an apt cause, reading about team dynamics, promoting an inclusive culture, and keeping up with current happenings in technology.
Tell us more about your role in Mark43?
My role at Mark43 is to lead engineering management efforts for our Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) application. This entails championing the technical vision for various projects, leading the team from an engineering deliverables perspective, and working closely with key stakeholders and senior engineering leadership, as well as people management.
What is the most difficult part of your job? But the most rewarding one?
The most difficult part of my role is likely trying to find the balance between conflicting priorities and avoiding burnout, as well as ensuring the wellbeing of my team and direct reports. This is also the most rewarding one for me personally, since seeing the commitments delivered on time without causing a lot of stress, and keeping the team motivated and engaged, makes me truly happy.
Is there anything that you would change about your professional path?
At present or in near future, no.
That said, I did change my professional path a few years back. I’ve always had a keen interest and natural knack for a role that was a combination of technology and people management skills, versus a purely technical IC career path. This strong belief and a growth mindset have brought me on my current path, which I’m really enjoying and can see myself continuing.
What’s your key strategy for the development of your company?
For me personally, it is key to continue to innovate along with ensuring critical system stability at all times. I’d also add that making sure that everyone involved is aligned with the mission of the company and sharing and practicing a set of core values is key.
What do you think about the next period of time, keeping in mind the pandemic and the new business climate? How will your industry be affected?
In general, I believe the pandemic has caused a paradigm shift for any industry or company on multiple fronts, and we are no different.
Whether it’s fostering a productive and fun remote work culture, maintaining work-life balance, or finding new ways to collaborate and communicate, finding alternate routes to engage with current and future customers, along with enhancing team productivity, are the common themes each company (including Mark43) is trying to excel at and improve upon.
Please name a few technologies which have the greatest impact on your business
Given our vision to build the future of public safety in partnership with our customers and their communities, technology is at the heart of our functioning.
For Mark43, key technologies fall into three categories: Front end web technologies (React.js, Redux, etc.) to build feature-rich user experiences, technologies and tools that ensure system scalability, uptime, monitory and robustness, and lastly, location-based service technologies, since they are an integral part of our key product solutions.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
The books on my nightstand is a rotating list, as I tend to read around 6-8 books a year at least. Currently, there are two books: Managing Humans by Michael Lopp & The Art of Asking by Terry J. Fadem.
Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order to discuss their involvement, what challenges they have had in the past and what they are looking forward to in the future. This sequence aims to present a series of experiences, recent developments, changes and downsides in terms of their business areas, as well as their goals, values, career history, the high-impact success outcomes and achievements.
